Cooking Russian Food

What are you planning to cook at your next dinner party?  Why not step outside of your comfort zone and attempt something new .  International dishes are a great way to show off your talents in the kitchen so today we are going to share with you some hot and cold Russian recipes that anyone can master.

Russian Blini – Hot Pancakes

The crepe might be French but other countries will argue their version tastes better.  Russia is no different and they have the Blini:

Ingredients:

½ cup plain flour (sifted)

2 eggs

2 ½ cups of milk

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon butter

1/3 teaspoon of baking soda (optional if you want a lighter mixture)

What To Do:

Start by whisking the eggs in a bowl with the sugar and salt.  Add the flower to the mixture and then slowly stir in the milk to avoid lumps.  Mix well or blend in a food processor.   You should have a thin batter at this stage.

If you are using baking soda in your recipe, add it now to make the mixutre more light (i.e. it adds air to the batter).  You can also stand the batter in the fridge for half an hour to let it rest.  If the mixture is too thick, add water/milk.  If the mixture is too thin, add in flour.  What you want is a pancake batter that pours like fresh cream.

Heat a pan over medium heat and lightly coat the cooking surface with oil or butter.  Pour about 2 tablespoons of the batter (or more if you want) onto the pan and spread the batter out evenly.  Traditional blini are thin but this is personal preference.  You should be able to fit 3 or 4 on a standard frying pan to make the process go faster.  Each side should only take about a minute.  When bubbles appear in the mixture or the centre of the uncooked side is dry, flip it over to finish it off.

Move the cook Blini to a plate and butter one side and stack them.  Eat them as they are or as a real treat, put jam into the centre and fold them in half.  Fold them again to make a triangle.  They are best enjoyed as an afternoon treat on a cold winter’s day with a nice cup of tea.  The tea should be black, no sugar and served with lemon.  You can sweeten the tea with honey, but there will be plenty of sweetness in the blini.

Russian Salads

If you are use to salads of tossed lettuce, fresh vine ripened tomatoes and a light vinaigrette,  then you are in for a bit of a shock with Russian salads.  Russia is a cold country, so hardy root vegetables tend to feature on the dinner table that delicate spring salads.

This is gives us the Russian salad – a salad with some grunt.  The salad we will cook for you today is the Dressed Herring Under Fur Salad.  If you are use to a delicate vinaigrette, then this salad will put hairs on your chest.

To make this salad you will need:

2 herring (salted)

5 potatoes

4 carrots

4 beets

5 eggs

1 lb mayonnaise

Steps:

Bring a large pot of water to the boil and add the potatoes, carrots and beets.  Boil until soft, drain and set aside.

Skin and debone the herring.  Cut the fish into small bite size pieces.  Take a large serving bowl and spread the herring on the bottom.  Cover with a thin layer of mayonnaise.

Take the potatoes and mash.  Spread the potato as the second layer and cover with mayonaise.  Repeat the process for the beets and 3 of the eggs.  Top the dish with the remaining egg and put in the fridge (covered) for one hour before serving.

What else can you cook that is Russian?  Why not try some a href=”http://www.hotrussian.net/russian-food-borsch.html”>Borsch as well?